El Al compensated passengers on the flight with a free coach ticket between Europe and Israel. Of course that compensation isn’t worth much for someone based in North America.

A group of 52 passengers filed a class action against El Al for alternate compensation.

Earlier today those passengers were told by their law firm that El Al had agreed to settle the case for 111,904ILS ($31,732), or 2,152ILS ($610) in compensation per passenger in the class, plus lawyer fees. The passengers were told that the settlement was under NDA and that they should not tell anyone about the settlement. The compensation would be in lieu of the free ticket between Europe and Israel.

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119 Comments On "El Al Settles, Then Cancels Settlement With Defamed Passengers Of Flight #002 Who Were Tricked Into Flying To Greece For Shabbos"

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WInnie

You don’t make it tempting to fly El AL

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October 29, 2019 3:14 pm

Izz

Haha loved this article! I just recently flew Elal from Tel Aviv to JFK in their new J class. They are not lying with their slogan “It’s not just an airline, it’s Israel!” – for all the wrong reasons..

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October 29, 2019 3:16 pm

Sam

Their slogan is right. This is the most Israeli thing to ever happen!

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October 29, 2019 3:31 pm

Yitz

Absolutely! They started with the forced secularization of the Yemenite children, this is the next chapter in the story of the secular Zionists trying to reinvent the Jew.
Just an aside- to my knowledge El Al is the only airline with kol isha on the introductory film. Basics!!

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November 1, 2019 6:30 am

Yehuda

Disgusting.

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October 29, 2019 3:19 pm

Chaim

Par for the course. I’ll pay double to avoid El Al after how they have treated me.

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October 29, 2019 3:20 pm

GG

ironically, you can fly half price of el al if you connect through a euro hub

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October 30, 2019 11:12 am

Broussard

Props on fitting the Willy Wonka clip into a post about El Al

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October 29, 2019 3:21 pm

Mike

Anyone who flies ElAl is a fool

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October 29, 2019 3:24 pm

1991

Wow Dan, no rachmonus 🙂
I enjoyed the article, your list against them doesn’t end. Made me laugh (although if I was involved in the situation I prob wouldn’t be laughing)

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October 29, 2019 3:25 pm

Jonathan

I wonder what the Chofetz Chaim would say

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October 29, 2019 3:29 pm

pointer

“Get off the internet, and stop wondering what I would say.”

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October 29, 2019 3:41 pm

dave

does lashon hara apply to companies? what if executives are not shomer shabbat did you research these issues before hinting to us?

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October 29, 2019 3:42 pm

aygart

He is pretty clear about the halachos of lashon hara about mechalelei shabbos bifarhesya.

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October 29, 2019 3:45 pm

reb yid

Cuz everyone knows the C”C had a soft spot in his heart for freieh yidden trying to force frummeh yidden to be mechalel shabbos, lie about it, and trying to cheat them.

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October 29, 2019 3:48 pm

N

I was on flight. There was no official NDA. No one signed anything.

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October 29, 2019 3:38 pm

Michael Harris

The last time I flew them I ordered kosher. Got the dinner kosher BUT the next meal was not. Questioned the flight attendant and she said I was not on the kosher list. So I asked how come one meal yes and one meal no? She grabbed it back and then returned the same meal back with the plastic ripped open and the kosher pamphlet stuck in. When question her again was told kosher foods are an accommodation NOT an obligation. If I could have off the plane then and there I would have. They are a nothing airline and not worth the trust for anything from the Jewish flying public. Makes you wonder if flying them is safe.

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October 29, 2019 3:38 pm

Shmoogrr

As someone who flies long haul very often, I no longer order kosher, as there is really no reason to eat 6 month old rewarmed scrambled eggs.

So, Last time I flew elal the steward asked if I ordered kosher. Assuming this is “the Jewish airline” there should be no reason to order kosher, as it is the majority of the passengers from NYC
I responded, no-I ordered Treif

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October 29, 2019 5:19 pm

Haviva

I flew El Al in November on their Dreamliner. The experience was more like a Halloween nightmare. I flew coach. I’m just 5’ tall. I was in a middle seat I could not lean over to get my small pocketbook from under seat. Had to hook it by the handle with foot and lift my knee to grab it. My husband had a window seat, with no window. I’m not a claustrophobic person, It felt coffin like sitting there. The gentleman sitting aisle seat barely had to lift his hand up to touch the bathroom door. I always TRIED to fly EL AL out of loyalty to ISRAEL. TRIED is key here. My next flight is on Virgin Atlantic that I respond to from DansDeals.
That whole incident was despicable. There should be economic penalties for vilifying a whole subset of people. Never mind that we should be 1 people and above this.

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October 29, 2019 3:38 pm

Joel

“loyalty”…it doesn’t benefit Israel one bit if you fly El Al. It’s a mismanaged airline.
BTW Israel is B”H quite prosperous it does not need any “financial help”. I’ve been here almost 20 years, it’s doing quite well and has been for a very long time.

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November 9, 2019 10:53 am

Shmoogrr

@Dan, how about you declassify those 2 interviews. Their behavior is probably the reason Israel wants to open an airport in Gaza! So it can be elal’s new HQ.

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October 29, 2019 3:40 pm

Ab

Maybe they should abide by the NDA. And not fly so close to shabbos if it’s so important to them.
And the insinuations/nasty comments about Israel is really beyond the pale. Go enjoy first class on Emirates

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October 29, 2019 3:43 pm

Ninjaleh

Just wow. El al is so disappointing. Anyone could have leaked to the media, including their own employees, so how is that proof of an NDA violation?

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October 29, 2019 3:44 pm

Shea

I love El Al, I always try to book them when possible, I feel the most safe.

I like ELAL as well. I have found that their staff have been very nice on the flights that I have been on lately.

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October 30, 2019 10:46 am

kishke

Its probably terrible of me to say this but here goes: I actually smile when i get a notification that Dan has written a report or story on something El Al based.

That being said, I’ve never flown El Al but i have flown other airlines and B”H never heard of anything remotely close to these stories happening on those airlines.

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October 29, 2019 3:56 pm

Why Do U Hate Jews?

Oh Wow, another Elal bashing post by Dan! Shocked I am not….
Anything that can be anti Israel or anti Jewish for that matter, you revel on.
Why you love posting anti Jewish posts and even anti Semitic posts, beats me!

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October 29, 2019 4:05 pm

Shaq

Bashing an Israeli airline is NOT antisemitic. Bashing Israel is not even antisemitic. Saying you dislike Israel does not equal saying you hate Jews.

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October 29, 2019 4:16 pm

Shmerel

You may be correct about the airline issue, but certainly “Saying you dislike Israel does not equal saying you hate Jews” smells a bit like meraglim talk.

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October 29, 2019 4:41 pm

Shaq

Sorry, I should specify the Israeli Government, not Israel as in the land.
Eretz Yisroel I love, the State of Israel not so much.

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October 29, 2019 7:32 pm

the better

Flying on shabbos is anti jewish
spreading libel against jewish brethren is anti semitic. so i guess dan is posting about anti jewish and anti semitic content.

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October 29, 2019 4:30 pm

confu

oh yes. Dan is the quintessential self-hating Jew.
Which is why he posts about the wonderful Jew-help-a-fellow stories. And about the joys of keeping shabbos and Yom Tov. And encourages people to give tzedakkah. And posts extensively on visiting Israel.
If El AL could up their game to be on Par with anything above a ULCC I’m sure Dan would be happy togive them good press. Just they are not. And when they pull all these Anti jewish even anti semitic (what’s the difference?) shenanigans. etc…..

@Dan needs to find a way to let us like comments. I like the one above from Eli.

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October 30, 2019 5:31 am

Joe

Why would they settle for so little?

Defamation is worth much more then that,

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October 29, 2019 4:16 pm

ExGingi

It is well known that I am no fan of ELAL. I think they need a corporate DNA change in order to get on the right track. But in this LAST turn I think they are correct. All settlements have Non-disclosure clauses. How stupid is it to breach that faster than one can say הכי בבית בעולם.

I think many of the passengers (chief amongst them RSBS) acted foolishly in boarding the flight in the first place, and in agreeing not to deplane believing the lie that they would land on time for Shabbos (it was physically impossible to land, taxi and deplane in TLV before Shabbos at that point) and acting like sheep when ELAL landed in Athens minutes before Shkia, when they could have landed earlier in a place better equipped for Jewish passengers.

The foolishness of breaching a Non-disclosure clause of a settlement is just befitting of the immature nature of these passengers.

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October 29, 2019 4:18 pm

Dan

Why are you lumping all of these passengers together?

Most passengers said they were told the plane was returning to the gate. And indeed, the ATC audio shows El Al requested to return to the gate before asking for an expedited takeoff.

Additionally it only took one passenger to break NDA. Not that there ever was a written NDA, nothing was actually signed by the passengers.

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October 29, 2019 4:21 pm

Haviva

Correct version!

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October 29, 2019 4:51 pm

ExGingi

I am lumping them together just like you do when you say people should never book and board Thursday evening flights to TLV.

From what I recall it was RSBS who aided and abetted the lie and urged everyone to sit down promising that they would arrive before Shabbos.

If I understand correctly this lawsuit is about the defamation in spreading the lie of violence. I don’t know what these 52 individuals hoped to get when they opted out of the general settlement offered.

Regardless of whether an NDA was signed or not, these people were working with attorneys and should be aware of the rules of engagement. ELAL is 100% within their rights to withdraw their offer if it was made public.

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October 29, 2019 6:50 pm

Dan

Nobody is arguing that El Al didn’t have the right to withdraw the offer.

But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. This story is a stain on El Al, they should want it behind them ASAP.

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October 29, 2019 7:01 pm

Skeptical of your coverage

The ATC audio doesn’t prove anything about El Al lying to their costumers about leaving the gate. It was a claim that was circulated and bloggers like you jumped on it and spread it.

El Al is a business (and as you keep on repeating, a private company) and keeping that plane in America until after shabbos I am sure would have been an inconvenience for them. You have no clue if they originally made the decision to stay in JFK and then realized that it was a better business move to do what they ended up doing.

The story boiled down to people who actually care about shabbos having no business getting on that flight in the first place. The entire NYC was a logjam that day and you had to expect problems taking off. El Al had no responsibility to let the passengers off once they willingly boarded the plane.

There was nothing that was completed at all in this deal but it was made very clear that the passengers should not disclose the settlement. Why in the world should El Al hold up its part of the deal if the passengers didn’t hold up their end?

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November 1, 2019 8:44 am

Dan

Combined with passengers that I interviewed, it confirms that the pilot told them they would return to the gate if they sat down.

This was not a large amount of money. United paid Dr Dao millions to go away. El Al could have made this go away by honoring the pittance of a settlement anyway.

Coverage like this story is completely self-inflicted.

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November 1, 2019 9:25 am

Used to be DanFan

Dan – please stop the anti El Al and anti Israel bashing. Commentator was right – you and your supporters should fly Emirates or Air Jordan instead… Reading these comments here make me sick – we have enough haters… don’t need you to encourage them…

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October 29, 2019 4:23 pm

Dan

So to be clear, you’re OK with El Al saying the flight was delayed and diverted due to Haredi violence (this was how all of the news and blog coverage framed it, even though it was an utter fabrication), lying about returning the passengers to the gate in JFK, stranding them for Shabbos and dumping them onto Chabad, and then refusing to compensate them because one passenger took the story to the new?

And your only problem and what makes you sick is that I call out El Al for their lies and shady business practices?

And for what its worth I do fly other airlines to Israel. But they’re called Delta and United and I’ve always been treated with respect for being a Haredi Jew.

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October 29, 2019 4:29 pm

Used to be DanFan

“Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Yehudit Rossler from Monsey, New York, who was a passenger on the plane, insisted that although the atmosphere had been tense she did not see any violence from fellow passengers.” – – – it was clearly a “tense” situation… what does “violence” mean? There might not have been proof but I’m sure religious Jews who wanted to get off the plan were NOT requesting to do so politely… El Al did their best to get them as close to Israel as possible – again anyone who books a flight so close to Shabbat knows the risks that they might get stranded… everyone who flies knows the risks of planes being delayed for any number of reasons.

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October 29, 2019 4:49 pm

Dan

Violence means violence. The doctored video purports to show violence.
Planes don’t take off when passengers are violent, those passengers are removed. It was fake news, full stop.

You can’t seriously look at this situation objectively and not fault El Al for several things gone wrong.

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October 29, 2019 4:52 pm

Used to be DanFan

violence doesn’t mean actually punching someone – it was a undoubtedly a tense atmosphere (as it seems you agree to) and perhaps an El Al (pilot?) exaggerated somewhat – but it clearly wasn’t a peaceful docile atmosphere . My issue Dan (and I assume others here) is that it seems like there was fault on both sides and you’re blaming only one side here… the BDS guys do that as well – blame Israel when others are also @ fault or worse

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October 29, 2019 5:35 pm

Dan

El Al isn’t Israel nor is it owned by Israel. People need to stop pretending that El Al is Israel.

It’s a private company that has to answer and apologize for its mistakes. Of which there were many on this flight.

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October 29, 2019 5:36 pm

Shneur

There is a letter of the Rebbe about flying elal at least in contrast that we tried to fly elal as possible. But I believe the point here is their ethics is horrible. Just as any gabay or community works when people are forced to use them. If elal would not be jewish no one would fly them. But people do because they are Jewish. PS so they think they can get away with murder.

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October 30, 2019 8:53 pm

Dan

Israel owned El Al until 2005. It’s now a private company.

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October 30, 2019 8:54 pm

Chaim

” El Al did their best to get them as close to Israel as possible ”
Let’s also not blame the pilot that misses the runway and lands in the water. He got them really close to their destination.

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October 30, 2019 3:49 pm

Haviva

✔️

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October 29, 2019 4:52 pm

Lo Bashamayim

Easy on the outrage train. Not everything has to be a religious issue. The issue at hand is a poorly ran company that treats its customers like absolute garbage.

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October 29, 2019 4:42 pm

Haviva

Very thin skinned.

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October 29, 2019 4:52 pm

Eli H

I can talk for myself, I always try to fly with El Al. “הכי בבית בעולם”
ITS NOT JUST AN AIRLINE- ITS ISRAEL!
All the years we were waiting to be in our holy land and our own our stuff! finally, the day has come, and its a mitzvah to support them and use them!
Btw I once heard a dayan say that unless theres a huge price difference you must fly with El Al because theyre our brothers and we need to support them before the goyim!!!

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October 29, 2019 5:25 pm

Yitz

Would love to talk to that dayen, and see what other mitzvahs he created.

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October 29, 2019 5:58 pm

Torah Mentch

Dear Eli H. I just want to clarify that you’re no longer waiting for Moshiach (Chas Vsholom) because you got your stuff already
The Halacha of supporting a Yid (Vchai Achichu) is only if he’s religious, and is acting like a brother.
All the best

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October 29, 2019 6:26 pm

Abraham

You mentioned “The Halacha of supporting a Yid (Vchai Achichu) is only if he’s religious, and is acting like a brother.”

Source?

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October 30, 2019 10:13 am

Harry

Indeed both Emirates and Royal Jordanian are real airlines that offer great service. Both are far superior to El Al in every way. Clean new planes, more room, crew who are pleasant, not arrogant. I have flown all three several times so have a basis on which to compare.

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October 29, 2019 6:04 pm

Yanky

300 frum jews signing an NDA…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Until one says “I only told my aunt.”

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October 29, 2019 4:26 pm

Avi

I actively avoid El Al, though it isn’t very hard given that they are always the most expensive option for sub-par service.

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October 29, 2019 4:44 pm

Abraham

After all posts, discussions and arguments about this topic – when considering flying – we ‘Yidelach’ will end up buying the cheapest tickets avail…. So IMHO a waste of words and time (for most of us here)…

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October 29, 2019 4:57 pm

Dan

In most cases the nonstop flight options are similarly priced, so you do have an option of which airline to fly.
I’d pick the one that treats me the best.

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October 29, 2019 5:00 pm

Abraham

Valid point. I’d do the same

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October 29, 2019 5:11 pm

Eli H

Some people only care about themselves, how they’re treated.
But some look at the bigger picture!

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October 29, 2019 5:21 pm

Eli H

I’ll pick the one, that is supporting my brothers and sisters!!

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October 29, 2019 5:19 pm

Dan

You mean the airline that blatantly lied to your brothers and sisters about returning to the terminal, then stranded them in Athens for Shabbos, then told the media the flight was diverted due to Haredi violence that never occurred, never apologized for maligning Haredim, and that is now refusing compensation due to one passenger talking to the media?

El Al’s actions with this flight are egregious, as is their failure to apologize to passengers on the flight and religious Jews worldwide.

But they count on viewers like you that allow them to get away with it.

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October 29, 2019 5:21 pm

Eli H

No one is saying what they did was right, mistakes can and will happen.

but to talk so against them?! who will we turn when the whole world is against us? to delta? to united? no, to our brothers and sisters! so let’s not bash them like that!!

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October 29, 2019 5:27 pm

Dan

Maybe I missed a step here, but why is El Al us?

They are a private company and they have abused our religious brothers and sisters on countless occasions without remorse or apology.

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October 29, 2019 5:31 pm

Joel

El Al is not “us”. You clearly don’t live in Israel. Do you think flying El Al is “helping us”. I think many chutznikim fly El Al for this but it’s silly. One, Israel is rich and prosperous and doesn’t need help. Second, by giving your money to El Al you in no way “help” it’s a mismanaged, 3rd rate tip off airline. No Israelis other than Haredim fly El Al if there’s a choice. El Al looks for friers (suckers) to fly them. Overpriced, bad seats, do yourself a favor and try another airline and compare.

It is unreasonable to expect an entire planeful of passengers to abide by an unsigned NDA.

One person shouldn’t be able to ruin the settlement for everyone. Cancelling the deal due to that is petty.

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October 29, 2019 5:33 pm

Used to be DanFan

if they hired lawyers then they should have abided by their lawyers’ advice and refrained from talking about what they agreed not to talk about… choices we make matter, if you talk about what you agreed (and are being paid) not to talk about then defendants will rescind what they agreed to do/pay. I can’t believe that you’re blaming El Al for passengers’ violating NDAs their lawyers agreed to! Although I can’t say I’m surprised b/c it seems like you have a vendetta against El Al. I (and others on here) don’t love them but treat them fairly and when in a situation like this when both were wrong blame both sides.

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October 29, 2019 5:45 pm

Dan

They didn’t hire lawyers.

A law firm reached out and asked who wanted to reject the Europe ticket and join a class seeking money.

The law firm messaged everyone about the completed deal and asked that people not tell others about it.

When you have a class of that size though, word gets out.

Sure, it’s within El Al’s right to opt out. But their actions were clearly egregiously wrong on flight #002 and they should have ignored it and put this behind them. Opting out was them being short-sighted, which is unsurprising.

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October 29, 2019 5:48 pm

mendel

And maybe it was an ElAl employee that leaked it to the news?

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October 29, 2019 7:17 pm

Dan

Certainly a possibility.

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October 29, 2019 7:25 pm

N

There was no “completed” deal. The lawyer hasn’t shared any documents. The entire thing is a FUBAR.

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October 29, 2019 8:38 pm

Shmoogrr

2 wrongs don’t make a right.
You are obviously trying to say elal was the honest one here, and not the leaker

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October 29, 2019 6:09 pm

Hershel

I think that “Used to be DanFan” is a PAID El Al employee, who was hired to defend his company.
Dan, don’t let them get away with this! Keep up the good work!

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October 29, 2019 11:04 pm

Abe

Exactly the point why not to fly! I will AVOID the airline that smeared and libeled cheraidi violence

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October 29, 2019 5:50 pm

Gary

Agree that Elal are at fault and deserve to be called out on it. Can’t do whatever they like and expect positive press too!

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October 30, 2019 7:23 am

moish

“Hachi babayit be’olam” the biggest shtiebel around! if you know what i mean

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October 29, 2019 5:23 pm

Marc A Klein

I always said that they hate Jews

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October 29, 2019 5:53 pm

Eli H

How can you say such a thing? THEY ARE OUR BROTHERS!

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October 30, 2019 8:30 am

Joel

You live in Chul don’t you. I used to feel like you but I’ve been in Israel 17 years, believe me, the feeling you have is not reciprocated.

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November 8, 2019 7:15 am

David

Never fly ELAL!!!

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October 29, 2019 7:18 pm

Moish

@dan I can’t believe how many people can’t seem to be able to see past their noses. It’s simple that they abused and always abuse the Frum and then add insult to injury by maligning them after. It’s a shame that this is how the “Jewish Airline” acts. Either way, IMO this post should be removed and the conversation should end. At this point it’s pointless.

Great job Dan! Keep up the good work all we want is to be treated decently as paying customers. Elal I am talking to you because I know you are reading this. I know a guy who makes million dollar deals in Israel and even he does not get treated right by companies and banks he deals with. Respect the customer!

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October 30, 2019 2:04 am

Jack out of the Box

Well written article except for this “El Al does not operate on Shabbos”.
Which part of the company does not operate on Shabbos?

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October 30, 2019 2:20 am

noach

GO DAN! keep proving your point which is straight shooting and emes!

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October 30, 2019 5:37 am

Carl M Sherer

I fly from Israel to the US and back every month.

My miles are on American – which has code share flights operated by El Al.

I avoid El Al like the plague. Exactly because of incidents like this.

Dan, I often wonder how you put up with some of the people who impugn your integrity on this page.

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October 30, 2019 5:41 am

Dave

It is all flawed from start to finish.
El Al should fly on Saturdays.
They are private.

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October 30, 2019 8:34 am

Hy

That would violate Israeli law

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November 1, 2019 6:25 am

Avi

Another interesting thing I obsereved on El Al is that when they want to clear the isles for food service the pilot jiggles the plane a bit puts on the fasten seat belt light and sends everyone to their seats.

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October 30, 2019 8:42 am

Joel2

Other airlines do this as well.

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October 30, 2019 1:20 pm

Shmuel T

I just flew El Al from Tel Aviv to Toronto; not sure what all the complaining is about. The staff were very pleasant and patient. We ordered kosher meals, and they found us even though we had to change our seats at the gate. They also had special kosher meals for the kids, which was a nice touch; and the kids were very much occupied by their new entertainment system.
For the few times I have flown them on the Toronto Tel Aviv route, I have to say I actually admire the patience of the crew, as some of the passengers can be difficult to deal with, and they’ve kept their cool. The meals were good, the staff was constantly coming by with water, tea, coffee, collecting garbage. Really a pleasant experience.

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October 30, 2019 9:00 am

Dan

Obviously not every flight has a problem. An airline shows its true colors with how they deal when things go wrong.

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October 30, 2019 9:04 am

Johnny D

ElAl staff and crew put the “S” in Snobbit. I mean half of the state of Israel do not respect their @brothers” why does this come as a super shock? Most Israelis do wtf they want. I mean for gds sake modern-day Israel was formed by fighters and if we all know even us living in galut that their neighbors are waiting to smell weakness and ready to pounce. Whether we agree with el al or not I could almost guarantee that they would NEVER reroute a plane to Uganda or allow any passenger to be left behind and fed to the lions. We should stand behind our flag and country and Dan whether we like it or not elal currently is the only airline synonymous with the state of Israel, kachol ve lavan, the Star of David and Jews. Let’s not forget and continue to strengthen the haraedi voice in Israel’s parliament and perhaps in the near future modern-day Israel and the rest of the world will hear, understand, and respect Orthodox Jews and realize that they are a key part in keeping Yiddishkeit as a whole relevant and unbreakable….

Matos elal is just that, a plane, the issue as mentioned before is respect and it’s very scary to see Yiddim not respecting each other. Wasn’t that the major reason for the horrible demise of Great R Akivas students ?!

All yids are family and if we see our brothers failing we don’t throw them under the airbus but rather we follow what is in our dna “hokeah achi et amitecha while still loving our fellow Jew like we love ourselves…. GD bless.

JD_thatsme

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October 30, 2019 9:11 am

JStun

Still on hold with El Al’s not existent Customer Service.

Has anyone ever had a positive experience with calling them?

When it comes to flying USA to israel, El Al is not even a thought.
Too much headache and too much attitude.

Can’t see how they could exist any longer than this….

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October 30, 2019 9:42 am

Eli

On the few losers thinking the’re doing the biggest Mitzvah flying El Al.

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October 30, 2019 9:15 pm

Gary

Not an airline its Israel, where the grocer does you a favor by selling you a bottle of milk.

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October 30, 2019 10:22 am

Greece\'er

Btw the passengers pledged big money for the Mikvah which is being built now by the wonderful Rabbi Handel.

But very little was actually paid.

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October 30, 2019 10:47 am

E

No one is saying the travelers were wise or righteous for their *choice* to fly right before shabbos. Certainly it wasn’t appropriate for a shomer shabbos Jew to choose that flight. But, with that said, that doesn’t make the long list of shortcomings and unethical decisions of ElAl right by any stretch of imagination (not to mention the subpar service, mileage and partner program, or below avaerage quality of flying ElAl).

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October 30, 2019 12:24 pm

Maier A

I’m a VERY FF, and I hear conversations going around in lounges in Europe/US. Ready for this one? Most heavy FF’s, and I mean ISRAELIS, and I mean chilonim DO NOT FLY EL AL!!! I hear it all the time – the service, attitude, seats, etc. It’s not just the “spoiled” Americans and it’s not just the charaidim, and it’s not just El AL. There are other airlines that treat people like garbage and people vote with their feet (or wings). Yes, I’m one of them.

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October 30, 2019 9:24 pm

Anonymous

Haven’t flown el al in a while (and didn’t want to ) but just flew them again recently. It was a really good experience. Especially a flight attendant with a yarmulke! He and the rest of the staff on board and on the ground were really nice. Seems like not all of el al is awful. Like my travel agent said there have been horror stories on the “better” airlines and great experiences on the garbage airlines

The ElAl bashing is self-inflicted and well deserved. But just like you ask that not all passengers be lumped together and denigrated, and also the way that you insist that ElAl isn’t “us” in one of your comments, making a snarky Israeli-bashing comment like “Or as their English slogan goes, It’s not just an airline, it’s Israel!” is really not appropriate. I love your stuff, but unfortunately this type of patronizing attitude and stereotyping of Israel and Israelis is not uncommon in your comments/forums, and it makes me sad to see you encouraging it as well. In one of your comments on this post, you even emphasize that ElAl isn’t Israel, so the sentiment in your post surprises me.

As an Israeli (and American), please keep putting ElAl in its place, but also stay respectful of a whole diverse society that, after all, are part of the mishpocha.

Reply

October 31, 2019 4:02 pm

Dan

Fair enough. I’ve removed that from the post.

Reply

October 31, 2019 4:08 pm

Yosef

Thanks Dan!

Reply

October 31, 2019 4:29 pm

Sol

I fly Delta. It doesn’t have a Mincha minyan in the exit row that you pay extra for and the men step on your wife’s feet as they pray to Hashem.

Reply

November 5, 2019 8:02 am

Joel

El Al sucks. Years ago I used to send my wife and kids on an annual tlv to JFK trip to visit her family. I’m not exaggerating but I spent approximately $100,000 on El Al tickets. Despite being a “matmid” member never did I receive a single benefit. I emailed them stating we would switch to Delta if they don’t comp my family an upgrade or a free ticket. Incredulously, I rec’d a response about 2 weeks later saying -get this- I should join matmid and I’ll receive a “world of benefits”. I replied that as I clearly stated in my initial email, I was already a matmid member. I said I’m going to switch unless El Al gives me something. I did not hear back and we did indeed switch to Delta and my wife and kids are much happier on Delta, better service, seats, friendly staff, better food too. And the skymiles don’t expire. I can’t understand why anyone would fly El Al.

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